


cacoesthes

by peppermint_latte



Series: Sol [3]
Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Demon Powers, Demons, M/M, Post-Devil May Cry 5, Self-Harm, Self-Mutilation, Trans Male Character, but in the context of a ritual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 01:21:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21818872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peppermint_latte/pseuds/peppermint_latte
Summary: The life of Adam Peterson, from beginning to end.
Relationships: V (Devil May Cry)/Original Male Character(s)
Series: Sol [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1554679
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	cacoesthes

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Devil May Cry, any of it's characters or any part of it's universe. The only thing in this fic that belongs to me is my OC Sol.

##  The Life Of Adam Peterson

_Or As He Calls Himself, Sol._

  
  


Sol was born in Fortuna, to two loving parents, Anthony and Jane. The doctor told the new parents that they had a healthy baby girl, but that misconception was not to last. By age ten his parents had come to realise that Adam was trans. His parents helped him as best they could, seeing a doctor with him. He was on hormone blockers by the time he turned twelve, long before puberty could truly start.

Over the next few years he socially transitioned and changed his name. Finally, he was Adam.

On his sixteenth birthday he was approved for male hormones and started Testosterone. He’d never been happier in his life. His happiness was short-lived.

A few months before his seventeenth birthday the Order of The Sword released countless demons into the streets of Fortuna. In the chaos his parents died, and he narrowly escaped with his life. Once the demons had been killed and the dust settled, Adam found his life in ruins.

He went to stay with an uncle, and slowly sunk into depression over the next few months. He barely went out. Until one day he overheard a conversation about the man who’d saved the city, the one who’d killed the demons, Dante. 

Adam suddenly realised that his life could have new purpose, he would find this man who’d saved them and learn to kill demons. He swore to himself that he wouldn’t let others lose what he had. He made the decision that he would leave what little remained of his old life behind, name included. He chose a new name, Sol.

So he began the search, his birthday passed with little fanfare, Sol could not bring himself to care, he was much to focused on the task at hand. The leads he dug up over the next few weeks eventually led his to the only two remaining members of the Order who had not disappeared entirely, Nero and Kyrie.

When Sol went to meet with them, he discovered that they had no idea where Dante was, but Nero offered to train him. Sol gladly accepted, in all his research he’d learnt a lot about Nero’s part in what happened and knew he was a skilled fighter.

The months to follow where full of gruelling weapons training. Nero taught him how to fight with swords, guns and eventually even a crossbow when he expressed an interest. Sol found that he favoured two more traditionally sized swords over Nero’s absurdly heavy two handed sword. 

One unremarkable day Sol finally managed to beat Nero in a fight. As Nero lay in the dust Sol stood there in shock. Nero pulled himself up and congratulated Sol. The light was fading and the two finished up for the day. As they cleaned up Sol remained quiet, thinking.

He bid goodnight to Nero and Kyrie and began his walk home, as he walked Sol lost himself in his thoughts.

This was finally it, he’d done it. He was ready to hunt demons. He would go to Nero tomorrow and ask him if he had a job…

Sol stopped in the street. He thought about Nero and Kyrie’s smiling faces. What if one of them died on a job?

Something painful ached in his chest, like an unhealed wound. No. He couldn’t go through that again. He couldn’t afford to be this attached to anyone, not if he wanted to be a devil hunter. That would only result in tragedy.

Because one day, no matter what he did, they would die.

Sol couldn’t handle that, he _couldn’t_.

So he started walking again, faster than before. He reached his uncle’s home and let himself inside with his key. Thankfully his uncle would be out for a few more hours, leaving him alone. He went straight to his bedroom and searched for a bag. He began to pack.

Sol was gone in the morning, without a word to anyone.

Sol wouldn’t see Nero again for several years.

In the interim Sol experienced a lot, and learnt a lot that Nero hadn’t taught him. Like how dangerous pride could be. 

After his first successful hunt he got a tattoo on his arm to celebrate. And after his eleventh he got a scar, a warning, a constant reminder of how dangerous the job could be.

It started with a call, and finding out he wasn’t the only one on this job. Sol thought he could be the one to take out the demon. 

He was wrong. 

It was much stronger than him and he wasn’t ready for it. He found that it was twice as fast as him and the fight tired him out quick. Just as he was about to get a good shot on it he saw a swipe coming at him out of the corner of his eye. There was just enough time to dodge so Sol gave up on the strike and tried to dodge the hit.

Tried.

He was almost out of the way as it came through, but not quite. It cut up the side of his chest and throat. His world exploded into pain and he collapsed as everything went black.

Sol doesn’t know what happened to the demon after that but he knows that the other devil hunter found him before he bled out and got him to a hospital in time to save his life.

He spent the next several weeks recovering and didn’t take another job for three months. The doctors advised he stay away from any strenuous activity for at least five, but Sol was out of cash by three and forced to find a small job that he could do with minimal effort. Even still he nearly collapsed part way through and slowed down the healing by a few weeks.

By six months he was mostly healed and left with dark and wide scar spanning the length between his jaw and collarbone. 

Sol didn’t overestimate his abilities ever again. The reminder of what it nearly cost him stared him in the mirror everyday.

He did joke to himself that even though he hadn’t needed top surgery on his chest that he still had a wicked scar to complete the trans experience.

The next few years weren’t nearly as eventful. Sol fell into a routine of taking jobs and sleeping in motels. He built a network of connections to others in the devil hunting world but didn’t ever stick around long enough to get close to anyone. His fear of losing someone again lingering.

Sol learnt what it meant to be lonely, really lonely. And how to live completely alone.

As those years wore on he found the feeling of loneliness wear on him until finally his fear of losing someone slowly eroded away, in its place an ache for companionship blossomed.

When Sol answered his phone only to hear Nero’s voice on the other end he was shocked. But as he listened he understood why Nero had called him after years. Nero had a big job, and he needed backup. Setting the past behind him Sol agreed to meet him in Red Grave. Sol had no idea just what he was signing up for, or how his life would change in just a few short days.

His life did change, more than he could imagine. V walked into his life and threw it into chaos, he hadn’t felt so unsteady since those first few months after his parents died. But this was different, Sol had V to follow at the eye of the storm. And follow him he did, right to death’s door.

But just as Sol thought he had lost another person, death spat V back. And Sol vowed to himself he’d hold onto V all the harder. It’s rare to get second chances, so rare it almost never happens. And Sol would not waste his.

V and Sol travelled after leaving Red Grave, they saw the world and Sol shared everything with V. V had seen much, but never as himself. He was both new and old, it was a strange balance. But Sol found that there was an ease between them, an ease he’d never had with anyone.

And one day V decided what he wanted to do with his life without any kind of warning. As the two of them sat in their hotel room after dealing with a demon problem they’d stumbled across purely by accident, V announced that he wanted to be a devil hunter. Like Dante, like Nero, like Sol.

And so with a few awkward conversations about how V would handle being a part of Nero’s life, they set off to Fortuna. 

Sol and V joined the Devil May Cry crew there, which consisted of Nero and Nico, taking jobs and living in the city. 

Sol had never been happier. But once again, it didn’t last.

It all started with a job in the city of Neverstar.

  
  


-

Cacoesthes

Noun:

"An urge to do something inadvisable."

-

_He knew. He knew when Nero first got the call. Sol knew this job was going to be different, dangerous. It even occurred to him that Dante would probably be the one to take this job under different circumstances. So he asked Nero to let him go with him._

_“This job isn’t that big, I’ll be back in less than a week.” Nero brushes him off._

_“Nero I’ve been a devil hunter long enough to have good instincts, trust me. There’s something about this job, let me back you up.” He pushed back._

_“Fine,” Nero sighs turning away, “I’ll tell Poetry to pack a bag.” He said as he walked away._

_Sol considered disputing that statement for a moment but knew that if they were going so would V._

Two days later they’re on the road, the van isn’t exactly big enough for all of them to sleep in it but they haven’t upgraded because they rarely all go on jobs together. More often than not V and Sol take smaller jobs or longer ones and get some decent accommodation in the area. And Nero takes jobs that would have been more likely to go to Dante, because, frankly, he's the only one in the business who’s strong enough to take them on.

It works well for them and Sol is happy with it. He is also happy to have this family they’ve built. He’s got a place in Fortuna, decidedly the other side of town from where he grew up. It’s alright. He visits Nero and Kyrie all the time and spent his free time with V if his boyfriend wants company.

Sol guesses that V must be carrying a lot of guilt, though he rarely talks about it. They try to be as honest as possible with each other, but they both have some baggage they’re avoiding thinking about, let alone discussing.

They did have an awkward discussion about V’s physiology though, specifically his aging. V thinks he’s going to live for at least twice as long as the average human, stuff left over from Vergil along with the demonic influence of the summons. They have avoided talking about it since, as neither of them want to think about V outliving Sol by such a large margin. Especially not when their relationship is so new.

Sol is jolted from his thoughts when the van hits a bump in the road. With his train of thought thoroughly lost he glances around. V is reading in the booth, unconcerned by Nico’s driving. Nero is in the passenger’s seat complaining as usual. And Nico’s arguing with Nero. It _had_ been fun to watch those two go back and forth at first, but Sol had quickly tired of it and it has become more irritating than anything else.

Deciding to distract himself from the circular argument happening at the front of the van, he walks over to the booth V’s sitting in, Shadow curled on the ground by his feet. Sol kneels down beside the panther and strokes its back. After a few strokes Shadow purrs quietly. The sound makes him go soft. Which is ridiculous, this cat is a demon who can turn into a blade, he shouldn’t be swooning over a purr. An adorable purr, an incredibly adorable purr.

Sol hears V snap his book close and glances up to see him looking down at them.

“Shadow has grown to like you a great deal.” He comments.

“It’s just good taste.” He quips.

V smirks in return and inclines his head. Sol stands and joins V in the booth, sitting across from him.

“Nero informed me that you are concerned about the mission.” Sol wants to sigh in frustration, he doesn’t know how to explain this well.

“Yeah I don’t have a good explanation, my instincts are just telling me that this is going to be a bad one. I’d prefer us to be over-prepared than dead.” He says flatly.

“As would I. And I trust your judgement, I will remain alert when we arrive at Neverstar.” Sol is shocked into not replying to V.

His expression must give him away because V explains himself without prompting.

“You have good instincts Sol, I have seen that several times. You have been hunting demons for some years, your instincts about them would be good. It would be a wise course to trust them even if I hadn’t seen them proven myself.”

Sol will never stop being surprised by V. He mutters a quiet thanks and stares at the linoleum table, unsure of how to respond to the overt show of trust.

The two of them don’t speak to each other for the next hour and Sol spends the time staring at his palm, rubbing the spot where-

No, he shouldn’t think about that, it just makes him worry about something he can’t do anything about.

He sighs out loud without meaning to, loudly enough for V to glance at him over his book. Sol’s eyes skitter away from him. He definitely can’t tell V, or any of the others, it wouldn’t do to worry them.

_‘I mean I’m sure it’s fine. All that happened is you held a weird crystal shard that came off of a demon before it died and a piece splintered off and embedded itself in your hand healing the skin over it like it was never cut in the first place, there’s nothing worrisome about that.’_ He thinks to himself. _‘Nothing worrisome at all.’_

-

Snow falls slowly over the silent town. The only noise is the crunch of his boots in the snow. It feels like it echoes in the empty streets.

The clock tower chimes, and Sol swallows. Half an hour, half an hour until V dies.

He's only got thirty minutes to find a way to save V. He pushes on, jogging to Nico's van and pulling the door open.

"Oh my God you're alive! What happened, where are the others?" She asks him. The sound of her voice feeling too loud after the silence of the empty streets of Neverstar.

"There isn't time. Nico do you have any of those pieces demons sometimes leave behind?" He asks desperately.

"I-" She falters at his urgency, "Yeah, yeah I have one." She gets behind the counter of the workshop and searches one of the draws.

She resurfaces and lays a grey shard of crystal that is glowing at its center on the counter. He picks it up.

"I'll pay you back later, I promise." He says as he heads for the door.

"Hey, where the hell are you going?" She shouts after him as he heads back out into the snow.

"To do something stupid." He says to himself as he trudges toward the church.

He opens the doors and hears the creak of the hinges echo into the arched chamber. It's deserted, just like the rest of town.

He clears a space at the front beneath the stand and pulls out a piece of green chalk. It's not paint, but it will have to do. He thinks it will work all the same, it has to work.

He draws the sigil how he remembers it from the files. He read them a hundred times. The Order had been all kinds of crazy, but they'd figured out how to give humans the power of demons. And right now, that's all that matters.

Because Sol is weak, he's not strong enough to save V or Nero.

_"All I wanted was to be loved and protected."_ The words ghost through his mind and Sol snaps the piece of chalk in half at the memory.

He buries the memories of Red Grave and V fading away before his eyes, there isn't time to dwell on that now.

He finishes drawing the sigil from Agnus's notes. He lays Nero's sword to the side. Now the hard part.

He unsheathes his own sword and points it toward his chest. His hands shake. He adjusts his grip, he can do this. To save V, to save Nero.

He slices open his chest just beneath his rib-cage. He screams as white hot agony tears through him.

He stumbles to the ground as his field of vision narrows and black creeps in around the edges, his right hand lands on the shard, cutting his palm open. How ironic, he thinks, as he remembers the piece of demon shard that healed there.

He picks it up, hand shaking violently. He takes a breath, feeling more pain blossom at the movement. He feels tears stream down his face, there's no reason to avoid crying, he's the only one here.

He pushes the shard into the wound in his chest and cries out at the tearing sensation. He nearly collapses forwards but just barely manages to stay on his knees.

He distantly thinks this must be easier to do with more than one person. As he shakily recites the verse.

"Sacrifice given, bindings woven, power acquired, price paid." He grits his teeth as the sigil lights up and the shard starts to burn in his chest.

The heat grows so hot it begins to feel cold and it spreads out through his limbs. The feeling overtakes him completely and the world lights up under his eyelids.

The world dissolves into light and sensation. He loses track of all thought. Who is he? What is he doing?

Sol, he's Sol.

_"Sol, you can call me Sol."_

_"Then you can call me V."_

He remembers V. The human half of Dante's brother, the soul that grew to be someone entirely separate from Vergil.

V who needs him. Whose life hangs in the balance.

The world reforms around him and the light fades. He kneels there and pants for a few seconds.

Then he slowly stands. Sol flexes his right hand. He can feel something pooling there, power. He pushes it out.

His hand glows purple and electrify dances across his skin.

He blinks. It worked. He feels the same power throughout the rest of his body. He takes a breath, and heads for the door.

The price is paid, and the power has been gained. He will suffer the consequences, whatever they are.

When he finds them he stares at the four-story tall demon of shadow.

"Two minutes to midnight, are you ready for a rematch?" He taunts.

The demon howls and stretches an arm out to swipe him. Sol takes half a step back and watches the claws miss him by a few short inches.

The clock tower chimes midnight in the distance.

"You should never have threatened the people I care about, I'm going to kill you for that." Sol says darkly.

The demon laughs.

"You are an insect, a pitifully weak human. You cannot defeat me." It's echoing voice declares.

Sol stares at the huge mass of shadows shifting against each other at the other end of the street.

He smirks.

He pools his power into the air around him. The wind slowly picks up, billowing his jacket and lifting the snow from the ground.

"What is this?" The demon asks angrily.

Sol pulls more of it until the wind is whipping past him.

"This is the end of your reign; can you hear death knocking? He’s at your door." Sol replies as he focuses the power into a beam that streaks down from above and hits the shadows in the center of their mass.

The demon screams in fury and pain. It snarls and launches itself at him. But he keeps the air whipping around him in as an impenetrable barrier.

He strikes out and plunges his hand into the shadows, letting the electricity loose.

The power crackles through the demon's form.

It howls again.

By the time it is recovered Sol has moved and is gathering as much power into his right hand.

The demon turns around just in time to watch Sol fire a huge sustained arc of lightning at it's chest.

He cuts off the flow and lifts his arms out on either side of him. He closes his eyes.

He listens to the sound of the snow as the demon runs, he hears the whistle of the demon's claws streaking through the air.

He pulls as much energy in, and just as he feels the first brush of air against his cheek he forces it all out.

The demon howls in agony and he stumbles back a step, breathing deeply.

Sol looks at the writhing mess in front of him. He pulls Nero's sword off of his back.

He walks towards it.

"Don't. Don't." The demon whispers.

He stabs the shadows and watches them disintegrate around the sword.

As the shadows dissipate two forms are revealed.

V coughs and shudders.

Sol runs to him and falls to his knees.

"V, V are you-?" He asks frantically.

"I'm alive." V answers. It’s enough. Sol shudders in relief and pulls his lover into a hug.

V pulls back after a minute and looks Sol up and down.

"What have you done? Why would you do this to yourself?" He asks Sol.

Sol laughs weakly, because it's all he can do not to cry.

"I wasn't powerful enough to save you or Nero, I had to do something." He says.

"But you are permanently changed, you-" Sol interrupts him.

"I don't care. You matter more. I'll learn to live with this, as long as you're still here with me." He tells V.

He remembers V's words again _"I just wanted to be loved and protected"._

"I love you." He strokes V's face.

V's eyes widen and he closes his eyes.

"I love you more than you could ever know." He replies.

Sol kisses him softly and slowly, enjoying the moment. He lets the world melt away, forgetting about the town and the demon and everything else for just a minute.

There are consequences to all things, this Sol knows. And there are consequences for what he did that night in the church, he just doesn’t know how big they are until he finds himself standing in front of V’s grave four years later. 

  
  


_The End._


End file.
